[OOC] Space Comms

[ffilz]

I like relationships ... the more the better ... just to give characters some background and the world some texture.

4th Officer Seiji Kimiyama A87A75 0 2 terms Merchant

Near the end of his 2nd term, Seiji was dismissed from service for stealing from passengers. Somehow through his shenanigans, he was able to hide 20 kcr of his illicit gains before he was sent to the ship in disgrace.

PO3rd Lawrence "Larry Clarke" (M) age 33 [794747] - [Barbarian: 1 term; Merchant: 3 term; Navy: 1 term (current)]

TERM 3 (age 26-29) [4-7 years ago]
Lawrence took the Navigator position on a Free Trader planning an Exploratory Trade mission to build up a regular Route in the coming years in hope that being on the Bridge might finally gain him his Pilot skill dream. The Captain had little interest in investing in a second pilot and tended to press Lawrence's Carousing skills into service of Brokering contracts among new contacts. Half way through the term, the Creator sent Lawrence his greatest TEST yet. An engineering mistake ruined a cargo of Machine Parts being delivered to Birach. Lawrence made a convenient scapegoat for the Captain, until the local media discovered that the "disaster" involved a Birach local spacer (Birach had few Spacers) and obtained a copy of the video from the accident that revealed what really happened. The framing of a Birach local by the powerful Atreo Government was a story that played well locally ... granting "Larry Clarke" instant local fame on Birach. Since the attention of the government of "The General" was the last thing that an "Old Guard" wanted, Lawrence simply disappeared from public view.

You don't have a lot of detail, but Seiji was a "Merchant" and the first two years of your career overlap with the Third term of Lawrence (Exploratory Trade & Route) so we could have a connection.

So are you interested in a connection and do you have any thoughts?

When did you pick up your steward skill? Your engineering? Seiji got Steward-1 and Electronics-1 during his 1st term (I don't have much details because I used Classic Traveller - maybe I should have used Mgt1...).

[The Bindoner]

I was waiting to see who else was going to post. Meta-OOC, do we go check the debris out? Should be a group decision.

I'm in favour of investigating. Damn suspicious, that detour to a navigation hazard.

Good luck with the virus atpollard and ffilz, I've just recovered from one, mostly.

[atpollard]

When did you pick up your steward skill? Your engineering? Seiji got Steward-1 and Electronics-1 during his 1st term (I don't have much details because I used Classic Traveller - maybe I should have used Mgt1...).

Lawrence gained Steward/Carousing in Term 1 and Engineering/Gambling in Term 2 and Navigation/Broker in Term 3 of his “Merchant (Free Trader)” career.

I like CT CharGen, too. So I rolled his attributes in order [794747] and just kept them. Since we were going to end up in the Navy for this game, I decided that a high DEX should at least try for Flight College from CT High Guard as a “pre-enlistment option”. He passed the admission with flying colors, but the “success” roll for Flight College was such an epic fail that I decided to boot him out of the Navy and go for a CT Merchant. So I rolled all of the Survival, Position, Promotion and Reenlistments from CT to just resolve the basic character. Since he had SUCH a low EDU, I figured there was no harm in going back and adding a Term 0 (age 14-17) as a Barbarian.

After I had a basic character, I went back to CT Merchant Prince just to roll up a bunch of those background details for “chrome” to help inspire the character’s story. I also decided to add both an event and a mishap from Mongoose Traveller to each term to create that “misfit” background that we were looking for. I ignored the skills and penalties, this was just adding details to the background.

Leitz wasn’t clear on how he wanted to handle CharGen and skill-0, except to state “about 2-3 skills per term”. When I Ref using CT, I just give ALL the skills for your class at skill-0 since you “could have” rolled any of those skills, so you were exposed to them and have “some familiarity”. That doesn’t work for a character that jumps around multiple careers, so I rolled two dice for each term and noted all of the skills that Lawrence could have rolled with those dice as skill-0 and picked the actual skill that he gained from that list. For Merchant, I took the skills on Merchant Exam qualification since I had already rolled his final rank.

So Lawrence has exactly 2 skills per term and skill-0 in all of the skills that he could have rolled if he had chosen to apply the die to a different table.

[dragoner]

I was waiting to see who else was going to post. Meta-OOC, do we go check the debris out? Should be a group decision.

I'm in favour of investigating. Damn suspicious, that detour to a navigation hazard.

I wouldn't want to be accused of not going to the space dungeon when it was presented; however, at this point, it's two out of five. Though it also seems odd to be a merchant ship patrolling? Ok.

[atpollard]

I was waiting to see who else was going to post. Meta-OOC, do we go check the debris out? Should be a group decision.

I'm in favour of investigating. Damn suspicious, that detour to a navigation hazard.

I wouldn't want to be accused of not going to the space dungeon when it was presented; however, at this point, it's two out of five. Though it also seems odd to be a merchant ship patrolling? Ok.

Don’t the people with the steering wheel usually decide WHERE the ship goes? The people in the engine room just get to decide IF the ship goes anywhere.

In any event, sure.
Let’s head to the pile of trash and get ambushed by the fighters hiding among the debris. I hope we have at least one turret working by then.

[Leitz]

Hey, sorry not to have jumped in earlier. I had a commitment that took what little time I had to think, and I wanted to respond in character. Of course, I also just spent half an hour trying to help get a neighbor's dogs back into their yard.

Going back to check things out would require the Captain's approval, and take a good bit of time to decelerate or arc back around With the skills aboard, easily done, but it would be a captain choice. Since she is usually active during First and Second shifts, it may be that she knew about it.

However...

Alex, and the now clued in Dork, can get some reasonably good information. Dork rolled well, and with Leslie's work they realize the ship didn't fly through the debris, but on the other side of it. That is, further away from "civilization". It is also noted that the captain was in her office doing "paperwork" for most of both shifts, and there are no log entries about the deviation. Alex can mentally review the plot and realize the deviation could be done without a lot of hints that it was being done.

From a meta-game "bridge crew" perspective, Dork seems as surprised as anyone, and seems to enjoy the work. However, her skills are more Commo and ShipTactics; she's not a sensor person. Depending on how much Third Shift talks to each other, you may remember that a Sensor trained Marine is just on the other side of the hatch.

[Leitz]

Leitz wasn’t clear on how he wanted to handle CharGen and skill-0, except to state “about 2-3 skills per term”.

Leitz is more interested in a good back-story and character interaction than any illusion of game balance. If you all are having fun and telling a great story, keep at it!

Why is a Merchant Marine on patrol? Mostly because the Birach Merchant Marine existed, and there's no equivalent to the US Coast Guard Auxiliary for the Birach Navy. During the recent war, hundreds of old ships were nominally recommissioned as space worthy and sent across the line, with no concern for a balanced budget. Also, during the war, the nobility was reestablished as operational. Most nobles who were interested formed militia groups to support the Army, but some decided to fund ships. The Too Hexed isn't regular Navy, but classified as an armed merchant tasked with system defense. It is, really, a play for some noble's ego, and it would be nice if they were invested enough in their ego to make the ship work. The captain is running the ship for someone else, and it's obvious that she's not regular Navy, or endowed with any ship skills. Fairly pleasant to talk to, pretty bright, and occasionally caught reading naval manuals and regulations.

Since everyone as been aboard for a bit, you're pretty confident the rumors about the Captain and FC Cochran being "in a relationship" mostly stem from Cochran's image of himself.

Hope that helps.

[Leitz]

alex takes his pistol and shoots himself in the head

Well, that's one option, I suppose. Anyone else?